A fallen WWII soldier was brought back to his home in Liberty, Mississippi, on Saturday.

James Samuel Smith’s body was recently discovered on a South Pacific island.

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Dozens of Patriot Guard members lined the way on their motorcycles to show their support for the fallen soldier’s family and to escort Smith to his final resting place.

Smith, who was born in Liberty in 1924, joined the Marines and left for service in August 1942.

Family members said they received their last telegram in October of that year.

“They just didn't know. They had no answers,” niece Becky Bailey said. “I got a copy of a telegram that said he was missing in action.”

In that letter, Smith said he was headed to battle on the Gilbert Islands, a chain of a small islands in the Pacific.

It’s believed that Smith died in November 1943 during what was called the “Assault on Beach Red Two.” Smith was 19 years old.

“They worried. They never knew,” nephew Carey S. Smith said of the fallen Marine's parents. “I got more information now than they ever had until they died, but this has been several months for me because of matching DNA and everything.”

DNA linked the found remains to Smith.

After identification was made, a group of Marines escorted the soldier’s body from an airplane at the Jackson Airport to family in Liberty on Saturday.

“My grandparents, my dad, all put a monument there at their cemetery because they knew one day, this would happen, he would come home,” niece Debbie Smith Mabry said.